A Future Not Our Own

This poem by the Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador has helped to carry me through a few things recently, not least when I had to conduct a bible study on Joshua in CF. I had wanted to end the session with this poem, since I was talking about being the voice of counterculture in our world today. In the end I decided against it... I was already taking too much time!

It helps, now and then, to step back
And take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
It is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
The magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
Which is another way of saying
That the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection…
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
Knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything
And there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
And to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
An opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results…
We are prophets of a future not our own.

~ Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, A Future Not Our Own

This man spoke out against injustice. He was a voice of counterculture. And one day, because of the things that he spoke about, Oscar Romero was assasinated while conducting Mass